Gabriela Garcia-Mejia
Professor Valverde
Section Presentation
22 May 2017
Student
Activism
The readings for this week, as the theme suggests,
revolve around student activism specifically within the Asian community and
what it truly means to be a student activistd. Historically members of the
Asian community are seen as apolitical and apathetic to social and political
movements even within the university setting. They often times face lack of
support from other minorities, putting into question their place within that
group. They also face a divide within the Asian community as there seems to be
higher representation for certain groups compared to others. The biggest
obstacle of all is actually the University itself, which disguises itself as an
ally for students.
In Mark Putterman’s article “What
Asian Americans are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice” he
discusses this impression that other minorities have of Asian Americans and
activism and where this stems from. He states that with an increase in student
movements like Black Lives Matter many Asian American students do not really
know what their place is within that space. Part of this has to do with the
model minority myth and how Asians tend to be seen by other minorities as
standing closer to the “white” side of the line than on the “minority” side. Even
within the Asian American community there is an unequal representation of
different communities. For example the largest and most common Asian groups are
Chinese, Japanese and Korean while many Southeast Asian and Hmong communities
are underrepresented. Putterman pushes for the rejection of this model minority
and that there is in fact an Asian movement occurring. He urges Asian Americans
to express solidarity with minority protests by finding commonalities with each
other’s struggles while also voicing their own feelings of isolation and lack
of representation within the university.
In Precariously Positioned: Asian American Women Students
Negotiating Power in Academic Wonderland by Shannon Deloso and Leslie L. Đỗ
they discuss their personal experiences with student activism through the UC
and CSU system respectively as well as the influence of their cultural
background. They discuss how there is almost no support by the administration
when it comes to the student’s needs and in the case of Deloso when students to
stand up their wants and needs are received with disrespect. They were fighting
the budget cuts at SFSU that were going to cut half of the funding for the
College of Ethnic Studies without caring that students who were
majoring/minoring in these subjects were going to be pushed back and possible
even risk not graduating if the necessary courses were not offered. It was
during Shannon’s fight for the proper allocation of funds to this College that she
understood the lack of prioritization that the students had in the eyes of the
University. The administration is not here for the students, they are after
their own self-interest.
In
the case of Leslie she focused more on the single sidedness of student activism
that she witnessed at UC Davis and how that can divide groups and stop them
from working together. She discussed two instances where a professor and a
student speaker were chastised for not using proper gender pronouns. The University
through various retreats and workshops teach forms of activism that are focused
on gender pronouns or cultural family dynamics to deter activisms aimed at
them. When students focus on the greater issues and turn the focus back on the
university and how they are failing the student body that is how true change
can occur. That is not to say that the use of gender pronouns is futile but
when so much energy is focused on one individual who didn’t say it, then that
causes for community divisions when we should be allies.
Like
Putterman mentioned, there is this misconception that Asian students only come
to the University to get a degree and graduate, which I think totally
undermines their wants and needs at the University. I know that for me
personally I am guilty at times of not really associating social movements or
student activism with the Asian community even though there is no reason to
think that they don’t have concerns and needs just like the Chicanx, Native
American and African American communities. I think that a large part of my
ignorance was due to the continuous portrayal of Asians as submissive, quite,
and non-threatening but as I reflected I realized that this just goes back to
the social divisions that are made within different ethnic groups so that we
see the differences in each other rather than seeing how we are all the same.
What struggles do we share, and how can we support one another. In a way I
think that this ties back to this institutionalized student activism and how
there is an oversight and approval by the university of a protest against the university
so how much freedom is there in that. And this idea of a submissive Asian
student is perpetuated by the University, especially when they don’t offer as
many or at times any Asian American courses, or host events that are
specifically targeted for the Asian community. If others do not see them as “activists”
then the University feels like they do not have to address their needs even
though they make up the largest minority percentage and in some campuses they’re
close to the majority. Reminded me how Leslie and Shannon called themselves not
student activists, but activist-students; a dual threat to the administration.
Resources:
Do, Leslie and Deloso, Shannon. Precariously Positioned: Asian American
Women Students Negotiating Power in Academic Wonderland. Retrieved May, 2017.
Putterman, M. T. (2016, December 27). What Asian Americans
Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. Retrieved May 17, 2017,
from
https://www.racefiles.com/2016/02/01/what-asian-americans-are-bringing-to-campus-movements-for-racial-justice/
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